According to the Beeb, this is the official candidate list for Thursday's Eastleigh By-Election. A right motley bunch by the looks of it. Who would you vote for out of this lot, and who do you think will win it?

According to the Beeb, this is the official candidate list for Thursday's Eastleigh By-Election. A right motley bunch by the looks of it. Who would you vote for out of this lot, and who do you think will win it?

I'd vote for John O Farrell. I think Maria Hutchings will win it, although she seems to be doing her very, very best to avoid doing so.

as much as I'd love to vote for the Beer, Baccy and Crumpet Party party, and as much as I'm not happy with the party its still the Lib Dems for me (duck!). People keep telling me I should sway to ukip but they are far too illiberal for me (stance on gay marriage and civil liberties).

In an interesting aside though, if UKIP starts splitting the tory vote I wonder if there will be some kicking themselves over rejecting AV! (Probably not but we'll know tomorrow)

as much as I'd love to vote for the Beer, Baccy and Crumpet Party party, and as much as I'm not happy with the party its still the Lib Dems for me (duck!). People keep telling me I should sway to ukip but they are far too illiberal for me (stance on gay marriage and civil liberties).

Lib Dem to UKIP would be quite some journey politically on the face of it.

But dig down a bit and the Lib Dems in practice have real problems with women, ethnic minorities and homosexuality. UKIP are just more honest about it.

as much as I'd love to vote for the Beer, Baccy and Crumpet Party party, and as much as I'm not happy with the party its still the Lib Dems for me (duck!). People keep telling me I should sway to ukip but they are far too illiberal for me (stance on gay marriage and civil liberties).

As for the civil liberties bit, the Lib Dems are part of a government that will shortly bring the Justice and Security Bill to Parliament. The Lib Dem membership is, righty in my view, deeply against it. It will be interesting to see how the MPs vote.

My guess is that they'll make a big fuss about opposing it, then vote for it anyway.

You're quite right, it tells you all you need to know about the daily wail.

BTW, the Side Bar of Shame is on pretty good form today. The one thing the self appointed guardian of the nations morals that is the wail does more than anything else to remind us of it's utter hypocrisy.

"it is a well known fact that those people who most want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it."

Lib Dem to UKIP would be quite some journey politically on the face of it.

But dig down a bit and the Lib Dems in practice have real problems with women, ethnic minorities and homosexuality. UKIP are just more honest about it.

On the face of it yes, but I consider my self a fiscal conservative and social liberal. That's mostly why labour don't come in to my equation, at least until they show they've learnt some lessons in that area, and realise that socially 1984 (the Orwell novel) was a warning not a blueprint for society. As a small business owner technically I should vote Conservative, but frankly their snotty pro-London, anti civil liberties attitude repulses me. Leaving me with the Lib Dems. They certainly aren't perfect but I'll at least give them a chance to improve. After that I guess I'll stop voting as I refuse to only vote for the least bad candidate.

The thing about being in a coalition is that you can't have everything you want (the torys haven't had it all their own way either, and if the torys don't win expect an explosion on the far right) and frankly the Lib Dems were naive when they negotiated the coalition agreement, but since they were the smallest party they couldn't expect to get much. Directly after the election most commentators predicted another general election within 12 to 18 month, but the government has managed to provide stable governance of the country so far.

As for the civil liberties bit, the Lib Dems are part of a government that will shortly bring the Justice and Security Bill to Parliament. The Lib Dem membership is, righty in my view, deeply against it. It will be interesting to see how the MPs vote.

My guess is that they'll make a big fuss about opposing it, then vote for it anyway.

So Steve, if you enter a coalition government do you hold all your lines or make compromises. Of course you've got to make compromises. Sadly though since the media, and society as a whole don't seem to get how they work, ever concession is seen as a defeat. Do you remember the concessions the torys have made?

Presumably, given how keen you were on every 'security' measure implemented prior to 2010 you are concerned that the new bill doesn't go far enough in giving snoopers power and restricting the right to a fair trial?